Re:Silk offers an alternative to some microplastics
by mdp2021 on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @01:03PM
(#32168770)
Full title: 'Silk offers an alternative to some microplastics // Researchers have developed a biodegradable system based on silk to replace microplastics added to agricultural products, paints, and cosmetics'
> Some of these microplastics are intentionally added to a variety of products, including agricultural chemicals, paints, cosmetics, and detergents - amounting to an estimated 50,000 tons a year in the European Union alone [...] The EU has already declared that these added, nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, so the search is on for suitable replacements, which do not currently exist
> Intentionally added microplastics represent approximately 10-15 percent of the total amount in the environment
> Silk is recognized as safe for food or medical use, as it is nontoxic and degrades naturally in the body
> The secret to making the material compatible with existing equipment... is in the tunability of the silk material[: b]y precisely adjusting the polymer chain arrangements of silk materials and addition of a surfactant, it is possible to fine-tune the properties of the resulting coatings once they dry out and harden. The material can be hydrophobic... or... hydrophilic... or anywhere in between, and for a given application it can be made to match the characteristics of the material it is being used to replace
> Some of these microplastics are intentionally added to a variety of products, including agricultural chemicals, paints, cosmetics, and detergents - amounting to an estimated 50,000 tons a year in the European Union alone [...] The EU has already declared that these added, nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, so the search is on for suitable replacements, which do not currently exist
> Intentionally added microplastics represent approximately 10-15 percent of the total amount in the environment
> Silk is recognized as safe for food or medical use, as it is nontoxic and degrades naturally in the body
> The secret to making the material compatible with existing equipment... is in the tunability of the silk material[: b]y precisely adjusting the polymer chain arrangements of silk materials and addition of a surfactant, it is possible to fine-tune the properties of the resulting coatings once they dry out and harden. The material can be hydrophobic... or... hydrophilic... or anywhere in between, and for a given application it can be made to match the characteristics of the material it is being used to replace
Original research article: Microencapsulation of High-Content Actives Using Biodegradable Silk Materials - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.202201...